NURSERY COOL

By (TK) Published on March 01, 1999.

Curious Pictures' Steve Oakes has directed a 25-show HBO series for preschoolers called, appropriately, A Little Curious. It competes with Teletubbies, but "our show is more like an animation festival," says Oakes, thanks to shor t mixed-media segments that run the gamut from live action to CG. While there's no one as out there as Tinky Winky, A Little Curious stars characters like Bob the Ball, Mr. String and the Shoe Family -- actual stop-motion shoes. Oa kes, 44, has done hundreds of kid's commercials, and he was an animator on Pee-wee's Playhouse. So how do you make TV for the diaper set? "It requires a sense of appropriateness, but a sense of humor is key as well," he says. "T he show has to work for the creators as well as the kids." Will Bob the Ball be in toy stores soon? There are no plans at the moment, but "it could happen. We might